Town Ordered To Restore Fired Dispatcher To Job

WINDSOR LOCKS — A civilian police dispatcher fired last year for gambling thousands of dollars at the police station has been ordered reinstated by a state labor board.

Michael A. Barile, 28, was ordered reinstated by the state Board of Mediation and Arbitration because the town did not fire him in a timely manner after he admitted having placed sports bets with a police officer while on duty.

The board ruled that Barile's dismissal should be considered a suspension without pay.

The town will appeal the ruling to Superior Court in Hartford, said Patsy F. Ruggiero, police commission chairman.

"What does a guy have to do to get fired? Rape a nun in the police station?" Ruggiero asked. "I don't care what [the labor board] says. The guy admitted he was guilty."

Barile, who said he has taken a job as a dispatcher with a Hartford-based ambulance company, said he was pleased with the ruling but expected the town to appeal.

"What I did was wrong and I deserved to be disciplined. But I did not deserve to be terminated," Barile said. "Don't blame me for the way it smells in that sewer. I didn't create the stink. I just pulled the lid off of it."

Barile, who served with the department for about 18 months, was fired by the police commission Jan. 17, 1991. The firing came after he had gone to the state police the preceding September and told them he had placed sports bets with Patrolman Kenneth Kersias while on duty at the police station.

Barile told police in a sworn statement that he bet an average of $1,000 to $1,500 a week with Kersias on football games during the 1989 season, and between $4,000 and $5,000 a week during the 1990 baseball season. The sworn affidavits accompanied arrest warrants for Kersias.

Kersias, a 16-year veteran of the department, was arrested Jan. 3, 1991, by the Statewide Organized Crime Investigative Task Force of the state police. He faces one count each of professional gambling and tampering with physical evidence.

Kersias, who has been suspended without pay pending the outcome

of the charges against him, pleaded not guilty to the charges in March and is awaiting trial in Superior Court in Vernon.

After notifying the state police, Barile cooperated with them by wearing a concealed microphone while discussing his gambling debt with Kersias and by making a payment to Kersias with marked bills, according to the affidavits.

Before the labor board, Barile's attorney argued that Barile was a "compulsive and pathological gambler" suffering from impairments similar to drug and alcohol addiction, and that that entitled him to job protection under a federal rehabilitation law.

State arbitrators rejected that argument, but based their decision favoring Barile on the delay between Barile's admitting that he gambled and his termination.